Accessibility

We want to make it as easy as possible for everyone to use this site. One step we’ve taken is to follow web standards and guidelines that allow you to adapt the display of this site to suit your preferences.

Some ways to adapt this site to your preferences

How to enlarge the text on the site

If you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0, 5.5 or 6.0 – Open IE

At the top of the browser’s window, you’ll see a toolbar: choose "View”.

From the list of options that appear in the drop down menu under ‘View’, choose “text size”.

From the next menu that appears with text size options, choose a text size larger than your current setting.

Mozilla Firefox – with Firefox open, hold down the Control (Ctrl) key, then press the plus (+) key. The text on the web page should now appear bigger.

How to navigate this site without a mouse

This site uses the standard HTML features for site wide navigation using the keyboard. Listed below are the short-cut keys specific to this site. Other short-cut keys are standard, but vary from browser to browser. These keys will take you to any part of the site. Once within the site you can use the TAB key to go from link to link.

Here is a list of short cut keys that are used within the site -

(Windows: use alt+(number)+Enter to use with IE5x. For Netscape 6x and Mozilla just use Alt+(number). Macintosh: same as above but use 'ctrl' instead of 'alt'.)

Access Key

Function

0

Accessibility

1

Home Page

2

About This Site

3

Search

4

About Local Government

5

Councils A-Z

6

Councils By Region

7

Resources

8

Links

9

Contact Us

/

www.govt.nz

[

Beginning of Main Content

Other ways to make the site easier to use

There are also a number of ways you can override most of the design features of the site. For example, you can instruct your browser to over-ride our style sheet, and use your own custom style sheet instead.
For more information, see the following useful links about accessibility, below.

Useful links about accessibility

The BBC's My Web My Way. BBC website explaining the many ways you can change your browser, computer, keyboard and mouse settings to make the web easier for you to use.

Site and page structure information for screen reader users

Especially for users of screen readers, here is an overview of the structure of this site and the common page structure.
This site has four main content sections:

About local government – containing general information about local government in New Zealand.

All councils – containing specific information about each of New Zealand’s local councils. Councils are listed by alphabetical order (A – Z), by council type and by region. Information about each council is presented in exactly the same way: first, a summary page with contact information, key financial and community statistics, and a list of other councils in the same region. Each council’s summary page has a sub-menu with links to detailed information about the council's election statistics and finances.

Links – containing a list of useful local government links by country.

Resources – containing links to a number of local government related publications plus a glossary.

Each page on the site is organised consistently, with the main menu of navigation links to these main sections across the top of the page.

When viewing the site with a screenreader, the order of elements is:

Main menu options (links to the four main content sections plus a link ‘home’).

Your feedback

We test this site periodically ourselves and have also had the site assessed by independent accessibility experts, and tested by users of enabling technologies.
We also really value your feedback - it will help us improve the site for everyone.